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MTG Tournament Reports

I figured we should have a thread exclusive to some tournament results and reports - just a space for us MtG players to discuss and share our experiences, successes, and shortcomings. Before I start off, I'll just mention a few guidelines and the format to follow.

Rules:
1. Constructive criticism only.
2. Only discussion on tournament and event happenings, other discussion can be taken elsewhere.
3. More as we go along.

Round # and brief explanation on opponent's deck.
Game 1:
Game 2:
Game 3 (when necessary):

For the above, try to offer as much detail as you can on the decks and plays made during each game. Make mention of your sideboard choices and winning/losing plays. I'll offer my most recent report as an example.

__________________________________________________ _____

Tournament Report: November 17th, 2012

So last night was the local shop's first tournament for one of their Commander's Arsenal sets. I think there were a total of 12 people involved. Less than expected, but still enough to get the tournament going. I got there extra early (because I only live a few minutes away) to hang out and do some trading/testing.

And who did I see there but a friend of mine and an AMAZING Magic player, Anthony Lowry. Lowry is all-around a great guy and a fantastic Magic player. He writes for LegitMTG.com, so you can check out all his articles here (you'll be a better player/person if you read them). He's unnervingly serious during his games, but I find that playing him brings out the best in me and pushes me to my limit. We chit-chatted while he deck-tested against another friend of mine (who I'll call Thundermaw Hellkite here), and this let me get a look at the decks they'd be playing later that night.

Lowry and I did some trading. I ended up with a Temple Garden, Overgrown Tomb, Blood Crypt, and 2 Restoration Angels. He got a Tamiyo, a Terminus, an Entreat the Angels, and a Rhox Faithmender. I know...I only got lands and the 2 angels, but Lands are probably the best investment you can ever make when it comes to Magic...EVER (and I had more-than full playsets of all the other cards I traded).

I did some testing of the changes I made in Bant Control against another friend of mine who was playing Four Color Control - Grixis Colors (Red/Black/Blue) and Green for Ramping and Thragtusk. Game 1 I didn't see any of my counterspells at the right time, and he managed to get out his Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. We boarded and then I swept through games 2 and 3.

I tested my Naya Midrange deck against him too. Lost game 1 but took Games 2 and 3 pretty easily. I was in a great mindset for the tournament with 2 victories under my belt so I just decided to do some scoping out of the competition and talk with people.

Then the Tournament began. Four Rounds and then cutting to the top Four.

I was playing Bant Control (White/Blue/Green), a deck I'd been testing and tweaking for a long time now.

Round One I played against Thundermaw (my friend, not the card). He used to play the WUr Midrange/Tempo deck with Thundermaw Hellkite (which is why I gave him the name), but before the tournament switched over to UW Flash. I think the switch and lack of testing really hurt him. I've played this guy SO many times in the last month. We probably play more than 50 games a week, easily, so we're both very familiar with the other's play-style.

Game 1: He was wearing me down with just a Snapcaster Mage, knowing that he had to get the damage in first. I managed to remove the mage but he had 2 Restoration Angels, and then I was down to 9. I threw a Detention Sphere on the angels and continued taking hits from the Snapcaster until I was down to 5. I took 2 damage off of a Shockland coming in untapped so I could play Centaur Healer and go up to 6. All this time the only damage he'd taken was off a Hallowed Fountain coming in untapped. But I managed to stabilize at 2 life with Sigarda and Angel of Serenity (Thragtusk and a Restoration Angel under it) on the field before Restoration Angel targeted Centaur Healer and I went up to 5. My two big angels swung for 10, dropping Thudermaw to 8 and leaving me with 2 blockers and 5 life. He drew his next card and scooped.

Game 2: I had a much easier time. Side-boarded in Artifact-removal for his Runechanter's Pike; a Jace, Memory Adept, and MANY more Counterspells. I don't have as many notes on this game, but I ended up landing Memory Adept and milling him out. Not my favorite way to win the round, but I still managed to win.

Record: 1-0.
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Round Two was against another good friend playing Junk (White/Black/Green) Reanimator. It's one of my hardest matchups, and he's very very good.

Game 1: Went back and forth for a while. I just didn't see enough answers and he managed to Unburial Rites a Craterhoof Behemoth with 5 other creatures on board and swung for Lethal.

Game 2: I sided in Graveyard hate and counter-magic, but I saw none of it and couldn't stabilize. I managed to get rid of most of his real threats, but he'd sided in Sigarda which was very tough for me to deal with. I was forced to Terminus at 3 life, but then he played a Selesnya Charm to make a Knight token and attacked with that (and Gavony Township) for lethal.

Record: 1-1
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Round Three was against another Bant Control deck. This guy and I had played a few weeks before and our first game went over an HOUR AND A HALF long. I was prepared for the long game, so I knew to play with my A-Game.

Game 1: He took a mulligan to 5 cards, and I kept my 7. I was very happy with my hand: farseeks, counterspells, and just the right amount of mana. The game went back and forth. It was a long one, and I went down to 9 while he was all the way at 30 off of Thragtusk life-gain. I killed his Jace, Architect of Thought with one of my own, and played my second one. I got a lot of card advantage off of him and managed to stabilize with Tamiyo. I even got her Emblem. I was swinging with Angel of Serenity and Thragtusk and had infinite ability to counter his spells because of Tamiyo's emblem. He scooped and we went to Game 2.

Game 2: I sided in more countermagic and Jace, Memory Adept. He took a mulligan to 6 again and I kept my hand. I kept all of his threats in check, even when he played Restoration Angel on his Thragtusk to go to 25. But I had Jace, Memory Adept and Tamiyo out on the field, and then played a Garruk, Primal Hunter. We went to time and he scooped (he was 0-2 at that point and admitted he just didn't have the answers to my game position.

Record: 2-1
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Round Four was, of course, against Lowry. Of all the games we've played, I think I've beaten him once. But I didn't let that get to me and went in with my gameface on.

Game 1: I took a mulligan to 6 and started off trying to get my threats on board. He managed to keep my threats off him and his Tamiyo with Supreme Verdicts and Terminus, allowing him to get her Emblem. At this point he had infinite access to Ghost Quarter (to destroy my land), Sphinx's Revelation (to gain life and draw), and Dissipate (to counter all my spells), so despite being at 31 life to his 17, I decided to scoop and go to game 2.

Game 2: was a bit more back and forth. He got his Tamiyo out early, which I promptly Oblivion-Ringed, only for him to play a second Tamiyo. I killed the second one, but he used a Detention Sphere on my Oblivion Ring to get the first one back. He had several Geist of Saint Traft, too, which I had to spend my resources against. In the end, the plays I made keeping his Tamiyos and Geists in check let him get up to 40 life via Sphinx's Revelation and draw into an Entreat the Angels. He used it and got out 4 angels. At that point I was at 11 life and had only my one Angel of Serenity. He was swinging for lethal next turn. I scooped and wished him luck.

Record: 2-2

I got one prize pack along with the other 2-2's that night. One opened a Jarad, one opened some other junk rare, I opened Armada Wurm.
________

Lessons of the night: Tamiyo was a powerhouse, both for me and against me. Sphinx's Revelation worked better against me than it did for me, since I seemed to always be drawing it in the early game. But it's such a good card when you use it right. Jace, Memory Adept was the breakout star of the night, and I'm very happy with him in my sideboard. Jace, Architect of Thought didn't pull the same weight he usually does, but I played some unfortunate matchups where he just wasn't that well situated.

Overall I'm very happy. My two losses were against two incredibly skilled players and I put up as good a fight as I could. I learned a lot about what was good to do and what not to do. This was one of my best tournaments and the one I felt I did best in (in terms of growing/learning/playing). In the end Lowry and Reanimator-guy ended up splitting the Arsenal. I was not surprised. They were both very good and both played incredibly good decks.

On a side note: my Naya Midrange deck performed pretty decently too. It'll be a fun pet-project for the next few weeks while I continue to tinker with and tech Bant Control.

NOTE: I hate double-posting, and would avoid it if I could, but no one else has posted, so...

Tournament Report - November 30th, 2012-12-01

Last night was a FNM $5 Standard Tournament. Five dollars to play some competitive magic is always a good thing in my book. It wasn't at my usual LGS, so I went with a few friends on a bit of a road trip. We didn't know what to expect from decks or players, so it was a bit of a wild-card night.

Because it was only $5 for entry, I decided to take it as a chance to test my playing skills with a different deck and played my (probably) less-competitively powerful Naya Midrange deck instead of Bant Control (I also wasn't ready to be playing 45 minute games all night).

I made a few changes to my list before the tournament started, switching out my Sideboarded Gisela for an Angel of Serenity. I also kept a Yeva mainboard instead of a third Thundermaw Hellkite. I'll go into whether I felt these were good changes or not later on.
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Round 1 vs. America Tempo/Control
I know this was some sort of America deck, but I can't be sure whether it was Tempo or Control. I didn't see any Planeswalkers, so I think it was Tempo. Still, I prefer to call it America Do-Nothing. Because that's essentially what it was.

Game 1: I was on the play and drew a pretty nuts hand. Avacyn's Pilgrim into a T2 Centaur Healer. He played a D-Sphere on my T4 Loxodon Smiter. We stalled for a while until I hit a Thundermaw off of Cavern of Souls. He stalled a bit on that, blocking my Restoration Angels and Azorius Charming my dragon. He then managed to hit my dragon with Zealous Conscripts and hit me for 8 Damage, getting me down to 15. I got my dragon back and kept hitting him. Like I said, his deck DID NOTHING. I got him down to four and then Miracled a Bonfire.

Game 2: He took a mulligan to 5 while I kept at 7. I managed to hit a T2 Thalia and slowed him down completely. He spent a Searing Spear trying to kill it and wasted a Snapcaster on a Syncopate in graveyard when he had a Syncopate in hand. Even with A Bonfire and a Thundermaw countered I managed to hit a T4 Thragtusk and T5 Restoration Angel. I had Gavony Township on Board and killed him two turns later.

Record: 1-0
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Round 2 vs. Rakdos Aggro
This was the store owner. I learned later that he'd only just started playing Magic rather recently (by comparison, at least). So he did pretty well.

Game 1: We both kept at 7 cards and he was on the play. He it me with Rakdos Cacklers, Shred Freaks, and Ash Zealots until I was down to 9 life. I managed to draw out of my gas and play a Thragtusk on T5, but the addition of a Falkenrath Aristocrat quickly got me back down to 7 and then 2. Two Centaur Healers and a Thragtusk managed to help me prolong defeat, but without any sort of flying I couldn't defend. Unfortunately, I probably misplayed. I had him down to 10 after a single attack, and could have probably won if I had attacked on my last turn (before losing). But that Falkenrath Aristocrat ended up being too much for me to deal with.

Game 2: I sided in all my anti-aggro cards. Rhox Faithmender, Trostani, Selesnya Charm, and 2 Sigarda, Host of Herons. I had a bit of mana issues for the first few turns, forcing me to call my Caverrns on Clerics so I could play my Centaur Healer. He still managed to hit me back down to 19 that next turn, but a second Healer put me up to 22. I hit him for 6 to get him to 14. He managed an absurd amount of Damage the next turn via Hellrider to get me down to 11. I promptly readied a Restoration Angel on my Centaur Healer with his next combat, taking 1 damage off Hellrider but gaining 3 from the flickering Healer. I attacked with Angel in the air, bringing him to 11. The next turn I hit a Thundermaw. He went to 6, drew his next card, and scooped.

Game 3: Much more back and forth. He'd commented that he knew I was playing Huntmasters because I was playing Naya (and Huntmaster is the only reason to play Naya), but we'd gone through 2 games without seeing a single one. He managed to play Cackler T1 and Knight of Infamy T3 to attack me with the cackler for 3 that turn. Then was an Ash Zealot and a swingfor 6. I was at 11 before hitting that fabled Huntmaster and getting back to 13. He tried to kill it with a Devil's play for 2, but I had Selesnya Charm to pump it back up out of damage range. He still managed to bring me down to 7 before I Bonfired for 2 to wipe his board of everything but Hellrider. I played a Thragtusk and went up to 12. Restoration Angel and I was at 17. He killed one Huntmaster with a Dreadbore only for me to play a second at be at 19. I swung for 8 and he went to 10. I watched him stare at my board and draw his last card and scoop.

Record: 2-0
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Round 3 vs. Junk Reanimator
I played against the same guy I always end up playing when I've been doing well. This deck is so good, I can't even really explain it.

Game 1: I took a mulligan to 6. He kept. Despite hitting an early Thragtusk and getting him down to 10, He managed to stabilize with a T4 Unburial Rites on Angel of Serenity, wiping my board. I managed to get a Huntmaster out and Oblivion Ring his angel, but he hit a Craterhoof and ran me over.

Game 2: I hit a T2 Loxodon Smiter, dropping him to 16 and he hit an Elderscale Wurm off of Unburial Rites. T5 I managed to Zealous Conscripts the Wurm and swing him down to 2. He played a Lotleth Troll that next turn, but I played Restoration Angel, targeted my Zealous Conscripts, and stole his wurm again to swing for lethal.
Game 3: Despite hitting 2 Healers and a Thragtusk, I just couldn't keep up. His ability to mini-wipe my board with Angel of Serenity and pump out his own Thragtusks via hardcasting and unburial rites was just too much. He was up to 43 life and I was down to 14. Despite hitting a Craterhoof of my own, I just didn't have enough on the board to make a difference, and he swung through all my defenses.

Record: 2-1
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Round 4 vs. Primal Surge-Craterhoof
Another good friend of mine that had traveled with me to clean house at this other FNM. He was playing a "Ramp into Craterhoof" deck. It took advantage of Arbor Elf, Elvish Archdruid, Axebane Guardian, and Gatecreeper Vine to Ramp BIG TIME. His end goal was to hit a Craterhoof with a dozen little guys on the field, or ramp into Primal surge, which would essentially let him play his entire deck (he only had 4 non-permanent spells in his deck). I knew I had to stop his ramping to stop him.

Game 1: We both took shockland damage to get out our Mana dorks, but I hit a T2 and T3 Centaur Healer to get back to 24. I kept swinging, knowing he wouldn't block with his little guys. He actually got a few guys out, but I Bonfired for 2 and he scooped.

Game 2: We decided not to sideboard. He didn't have his in sleeves and knew it'd just be a pain in the *** to do. He took Shockland damage to get dorks out. And I managed a Thragtusk and Restoration Angel. Both hit him down to 10. He had a pretty huge board up at that point through the drawing power of Mentor of the Meek and Elvish Visionary. But he tapped out with no answers and I was able to Bonfire for 3 to clear his board again.

All in all a pretty fun night. I got to play with Naya, which just was a blast. I love that deck. And I even managed to get a win in against my Reanimator buddy. Every time I play him, win or lose, I realize I'm getting better. That always gets me excited.
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Card Choices: Gisela, Blade of Goldnight (SB: taken out) - I'm glad I decided to take out Gisela. She just wasn't ever good enough when I played, and there was no matchup where I really wanted her. I guess in the end the same can be said for Angel of Serenity, since I never used her either. But I still prefer the better angel - there might be situations in which Serenity is more useful.Yeva, Nature's Herald (MB: added) - Not as happy with her, though I never did draw her either. The ability to flash in well over half my creatures seems nuts. But I just don't know if that's better than a 3rd Thundermaw Hellkite. Time and testing will tell.4x Avacyn's Pilgrim (MB: added) - These were pretty decent, allowing me to hit a T2 Centaur Healer or Loxodon Smiter. I like them better than Searing Spears for now. Especially in some matchups. And then they can be sided out for better things.

I decided to go Boros at the midnight Pre-release for Gatecrash. Went 3-2 overall...probably should have been 4-1 or 5-0 if not for some stupid mistakes in R4 and keeping a bad hand in game 2 of R3. I really had quite a decent card pool, but after hitting 3:30 AM, my mind stopped working all that well.

_______________________

Round 1 vs. Simic: Lost the first game and decided to splash the Black for [[Kingpin's Pet]] and [[Gift of Orzhova]]. Swept the next two games. 2-1.

Round 3 vs Simic: Game one I hit the perfect curve. [[Boros Elite]] into [[Daring Skyjek]] into [[Skyknight Legionnaire]] into [[Spark Trooper]]. Game two I kept an okay-looking hand, but never drew into a white source. Game 3 he managed a [[Drakewing Krasis]] and gave it +2/+2 and unblockable (with some sort of enchantment), and out-raced me. I was one-mana short of taking the game. Went 1-2.

Round 4 vs Boros: Kept an O.K. hand, but didn't draw into anything. He had all the answers, and it was about 4AM and I was beginning to play badly and made a critical misplay. Game 2 I hit a nut curve again, but misplayed and lost. 1-2.

Round 5 vs Dimir: Crushed game one, despite all his removal and milling. Game 2 I survived milling and a chump-blocking a 26/26 [[Consuming Aberation]] to get my opponent down to 2 before I ran out of blockers. Game 3 we battled back and forth, despite me getting milled to single-digit cards. But I just out-raced him.

prerelease was really fun. quite a good play environment. i went simic for the prerelease first up and didn't get any rares outside of my guild booster, so that sucked, but i still managed to go 3-2 thanks to a decently solid pool (despite lacking shamblesharks and elusive krasis). then went simic again for the 2hg with my brother, and went 1-2. pulled obzedat out of my participation booster and also pulled borborygmos and breeding pool, so it was by thanks to those.

Saturday was the local shop's 2HG PreRelease event. I just moved to the area and didn't have a partner, but the shop paired me up with somebody. He...was kind of a scrub. He knew how to play, sure, but didn't quite have a real handle on 2HG or the new cards...or Sealed decks in General. I was left carrying a lot of the weight. Still, we managed to go 2-2 pairing my Simic-RUG deck with his Gruul-Naya. I probably could (and should) have gone Simic BUG. I had Mind Grind, Soul Ransom, and a ton of Dimir stuff (including my teammate's Watery Grave). But I felt more comfortable with Gruul and utilizing more Green cards.

I also had to basically build my Partner's deck, so I had even less time than otherwise when it came to building and testing. We ended up going 2-2, so not terrible. I carried both games to victory, and he stumbled through the games we lost.

I had some pretty decent pulls this time, too. 3 Drakewing Krasis, 1 Zegana, 3 Nimbus Swimmers, and 3 Slaughterhorn made up the core of my pool. I also had Burning Tree Emissary, Madcap Skills, and Legion Loyalist, and 2 Forced Adaptation to pair with Fathom Mage for extra Card Advantage...even though I only managed to do that during Testing.

Last night was probably my most successful FNM in a while...possibly ever. It was the first time I went to an FNM since moving to MI and the crowd was much more diverse and competitive than the place I used to go back in NY. Also, there were about 3-4 times as many people. Back there, we'd have 3, maybe 4, swiss rounds (if there were enough people), and that'd be it. Last night there were 5 swiss rounds, a cut to Top 8, and then single-elimination.

I went 5-0 in Rounds, 2-0 in Top 8, and then split for 1st/2nd because it was already 11:15 PM and we both wanted to go home. I played my usual Naya Midrange deck, which I just love. It's just full of value creatures and fun ways to interact with them. I made a few changes overall, but more on that later. There were a couple standout cards last night, and a few last-minute deck and sideboard changes that DEFINITELY worked out in my favor.

We both came out pretty strong in G1, though I took a mull-to-6 and he took a mull-to-5. I hit a Turn-3 Garruk Relentless off a T2 Farseek and made a Wolf to block his Rakdos Cackler. Cue his T4 Falkenrath Aristocrat. She kills Garruk, and the Wolf/Cackler trade. I slam down a T4 Thundermaw Hellkite, and Aristocrat goes bye-bye without something to sac and absorb damage. He manages to get me to 10 before I solidify my board with a Boros Reckoner and a Restoration Angel. Between Resto and Thundermaw, that's game.

Game 2 I sideboard out 2x Aurelia, the Warleader, 1x Huntmaster, 1x Thundermaw, and 1x Domri Rade, bringing in 2x Oblivion Ring and 3x Loxodon Smiter. We both mull-to-6 but I'm able to hit a nut curve with T2 Smiter and another T3 Garruk Relentless. Garruk serves double-duty as a blocker-maker and removal. Before he's able to do more as the Veil-Cursed, he gets Ghor-Clan Bloodrushed and killed. But at this point I've managed to drop 2 Thragtusks and the game is over.

Round 2 vs. Prime Speaker Bant: 2-1

Game 1 I took a mull-to-6 but came out swinging. He was on the defensive from the beginning despite the card advantage he got from Prime Speaker Zegana. It's a strong deck, but the fact that she doesn't draw you cards and gain you life doesn't put her in the same league as Sphinx's Revelation. I hit him with a Thundermaw-Resto combo and then burned him the last few damage.

Game 2 the tables were turned. I sideboarded in 2x Angel of Serenity, 2x Oblivion Ring, and 2x Garruk, Primal Hunter. I think I pulled out Garruk Relentless, some of my Burn spells, and a Huntmaster. He came out very strong in the beginning with a T4 Thragtusk and then two consecutive Restoration Angels. I managed to yank the two angels and a Beast with my Angel of Serenity, but it was promptly Selesnya Charm'ed. Without a flying blocker I didn't have a way to stop the tick-tick-tick of my life by Restoration Angels...and he was at 36 by the time the game was done.

Game 3 played out more like Game 1. We both took a mull-to-6 and I managed a T2 Boros Reckoner and T3 Huntmaster of The Fells. He'd already Shock Land-ed himself twice, and I swing with 7 power to get him to 6. He shocked himself again to play a Thragtusk and go to 9, and I managed to hit him back down to 3 again by forcing him to block my Reckoner with the Thragtusk and dealing 5 damage to him. Then I Speared him for the win.

Round 3 vs. Naya Humans Variant: 2-1

I won the roll and he took a Mull-to-6 in Game 1. He came out rather strong, with Champion of the Parish and Silverblade swinging hard. But I managed to stabilize with 2x Huntmaster and Reckoner, and at 10 life I dropped a Thragtusk. He managed to get me down to 9 before I drew Aurelia and took the game.

Game 2 he came out very strong. I sideboarded in the same cards as against my Round 1 Aggro opponent and kept a hand with 3 land, Oblivion Ring, Loxodon Smiter, Boros Reckoner, and...something else. I think Restoration Angel or Thragtusk. Unfortunately, he hit a super-aggressive curve, and I wasn't able to play any of those until T3 when he already had Mayor of Avrabruk, Thalia, Champion, and Silverblade Paladin. Couldn't come back from all that.

Game 2 was incredibly one-sided in my favor. I didn't take as many notes this game, but I dropped him from 18 to 12, then it seems he shocked himself to 10, I hit him to 7, and that was it. I remember playing with help from Garruk Relentless/Veil-Cursed again. He managed to throw a Sigarda and I thought that would stall the game, until I realized I had Garruk, the Veil-Cursed out on the field. I sacrificed a Wolf Token and pulled Thundermaw from my deck. All my mana was open and he scooped.

Round 4 vs. Dark Naya (Naya with Black): 2-0

I'd seen this kid play before and I knew he was good. Dark Naya is also one of the stronger midrange decks because it combines Naya's value creatures with Jund's value removal with things like Abrupt Decay and Rakdos's Return. Game one I hit a strong curve, playing a T2 Domri, a T3 Huntmaster, and a T4 Thragtusk. He had shocked himself down to 16 and managed to play a T5 Zealous Conscripts, stole my Thragtusk, and swung-out at me for 8 (hitting me to 19) and sending 6 to kill Domri. I got my Thragtusk back, drew a card, and slammed down Aurelia. With Thragtusk that was exactly lethal.

He got very flooded Game 2. He saw some of his removal, but not enough to stop the onslaught of guys I was sending his way. He did manage to 2-for-1 my field with an overloaded Mizzium Mortars, but I had enough sense not to overextend and played a Smiter AND Reckoner the next turn. He never saw a Rakdos's Return or any of his other removal, and I took the game pretty handily.

Round 5 vs. Naya Humans/Blitz: 2-1

Game 1 went back and forth for a while until I started bringing out the Thragtusks. Then it was just too much. He didn't feel like playing that game out and scooped. I wasn't complaining.

Game 2, sided out 2x Aurelia, 1x Thundermaw, 1x Domri, 1x Huntmaster. In: 3x Loxodon SMiter, 2x Oblivion Ring. I thought I had this one in the bag, but he surprised me by putting Volcanic Strength on his Silverblade-bonded Champion of the Parish. I went from 17-9 in one swing because it had Mountainwalk and I had a Sacred Foundry out on the field. I could have survived the next turn, but he played another human and pumped the Champion even further. Scooped.

Game 3 I played more carefully. I T2 Farseek into a 3rd G/W source to play Boros Reckoner T4, even though that slowed me down considerably. I didn't want to risk him having a Volcanic Strength in hand before I could stabilize. Reckoner makes combat very unpleasant for Aggro decks, and he's still tough to play around, so that bought me a lot of time to build up my board presence. I was confident enough then to drop a Sacred Foundry and use it as removal, Mortars and 2x Searing Spear cleared his field and I had the game.
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With Swiss rounds over I was in 1st place at 5-0 (the only 5-0 of the night) and guaranteed a spot in Top-8. Gameface time.

Top 8, R1 vs. Esper Control: 2-0

I thought this would be my toughest matchup, but I drew incredibly well and I'd practiced against this deck for a long time. I knew I had to win quickly but keep a close eye on all his mana so I didn't over-extend board-wipes. Sphinx's Revelation was also tough, but I knew if I played smart I could beat it.

Game 1 I drew nuts. Shocked myself twice to hit a T2 Domri Rade, and a T3 Boros Reckoner. I got enough Value off of Domri (Thragtusk!) so that even when he Oblivion Ring-ed it, I wasn't too upset. I attacked into an Azoirus Charm and then played A Huntmaster, forcing him to wipe the board. But then I got to play my Reckoner again. I dropped the Thragtusk and swung with both it and the Reckoner the next turn to knock him from 15 to 7. I swung again, and he tap-out a Sphinx's Revelation for 3, hoping to save himself at 2. I Searing Speared him all the same and that was game.

Game 2 wasn't even close. I managed to land a Thragtusk and a Loxodon Smiter on curve before he hit Terminus for full-price. I dropped Garruk Relentless, too. He milled a few times with Drownyard and Detention Sphere'd Garruk as I got him down to 7 with just the Beast. I played Avacyn's Pilgrim and attacked for 4. He played Revelation for 4, but I shot him with Searing Spear and Boros Charm to burn him out.

Top 8, R2 vs. Naya Humans Variant (same as R3): 2-1

This was the same guy I played during Round 3 and I'd been his only loss that entire night. I was feeling very confident that I both knew his deck and could beat it.

Game 1 went too long for him to survive. I had Huntmaster on T3 and let him flip back and forth, shooting him and his creatures. He managed to bond Silverblade Paladin with Nearhearth Pilgrim for Doublestrike and Lifelink and at one point ended up at 33 life. But I chipped away at that. I had 2 Restoration Angels in hand to let Huntmaster flip and unflip over and over, picking off his guys one by one. Then I had Slayers' Stronghold on the field, giving one of my Angels +2/0 and Vigilance. He had one Restoration Angel out on the field, and I just continued sending my 5/4 Angel at him. It let me keep it as a blocker and still make it a threat. I ended up dealing 15 with just the angel before dropping a Thundermaw and he scooped.

Game 2 was very close. It went on longer than it should have (for him), but the addition of Frontline Medic and a whole swath of chump blockers meant he had the chance to attack into whatever I had on the field with no consequences. Even with 2x Boros Reckoners and 2x Loxodn Smiters I wasn't able to survive a gang of indestructible creatures...and without flying, his Double-striking Restoration Angel finished me off. I was only 2 draws away from a Mizzium Mortars that I could've overloaded to save my butt...but such is life.

Game 3 wasn't really a fight. He missed a LOT of land drops and was stuck with a 2/2 Champion of the Parish and a flipped Mayor of Avabruck (so it didn't even buff the Champion). I had managed to drop 2 Thragtusk and both Reckoner and Smiter. Even with him sticking an O-Ring on my Reckoner, I still won. At one point he was at 4 even when I thought he was at 7, so I swung into his 3/3 Wolf, 3/3 Howlpack Alpha, and 2/2 Champion with my Thragtusk, Reckoner, and Smiter. He blocked Tusk and Smiter with the Wolf and Champion, repectively. He would have been at 1, though I thought that would only get him to 4 (lesson: watch the game states), so I speared his Alpha to save my tusk and clear his board. He asked why I didn't spear him and I learned my mistake. Still, with nothing on board and staring down 3 creatures, he scooped.

Top 8, R3 vs. Junk Reanimator. Split.

It was already 11:15 and we both wanted to get home. We split for top prize and both ended up with $30 store credit and the promo foil Farseek. Very cool promo. I'm actually glad we split, because Reanimator (especially Junk) is my least-confident match-up. I had a very good friend who played Junk Reanimator before GTC and I could never go more than 1-2 against him, even with significant Graveyard Hate. I hadn't played it since GTC came out, however (except on Cockatrice), but in the end it didn't matter, because we both were tired and wanted to go home. All in all, a very good night.

Overall record for the night 7-0 and a Split.
____

Final thoughts on the night:

-Garruk Relentless was a star for me last night. And I'm glad I made the split-second decision to include him in the mainboard or I might not have used him at all. I wasn't a huge fan before Gatecrash, but I'm really loving him now.

-Aurelia, the Warleader needs to be a 2-of. I was playing a 1-1 split with her and Gisela, but the two attack phases are just that good. I really wanted to have Gisela in the sideboard for the Control and Midrange mirror, but felt that Angel of Serenity was stronger in that regard.

-Angel of Serenity was pretty "meh" last night. Mostly because the format was so full of Aggro, but I also didn't really find the need to play her during my one Control match-up. She actually worked against me in the Prime Speaker Bant match, allowing my opponent to reuse his Restos, and I never saw her during the Dark Naya match. I actually might switch out one of these for Gisela.

-Loxodon Smiter was the champion of the night. I'd been debating playing him over Centaur Healer in the Sideboard for a while, and finally decided that his bigger body and strength against the possible Control/Rak Return/Liliana matchup would prove better than 3 life. I was absolutely right. Centaur Healer works well with Restoration Angel, but you're likely to need it as a blocker before then. Smiter makes them really reconsider attacking, or at least, if they attack you know they have a combat trick up their sleeves.

-Witchbane Orb is still a "maybe" in my book. It'd definitely be amazing against Rakdos's Return, any sort of Mill, and targeted sacrifice, but I never drew it all last night. I still think it's necessary, but I'll need to actually play it to be sure.

-Boros Charm was a star in the one match I actually sided it in for. I can't complain at all.

-Rest in Peace never came in since I didn't play Reanimator, but I know there are several people playing some sort of Reanimator variants and UWR Flash w/Runechanter's Pike variants, which RIP really works well against.

Went to the local FNM on the 5th to prepare for the next day's 1K Standard Tournament. I'd made a few changes to the deck from last time, mostly in the sideboard in preparation for the inevitable Junk Reanimator matchup. Ended up with a 6-1 record and a split for top prize.

I started off pretty strong, despite taking 4 off a Vexing Devil on turn 1. I was down to 14, but shock-landed myself again to land a T2 Boros Reckoner. He fought me down to 6, and I continued to pull removal and blockers. I finally landed a Huntmaster of the Fells, which he inevitably didn't have an answer for.

Game 2 didn't go as planned. Despite keeping what seemed like a strong hand, I couldn't stabilize fast enough, and was burned-out by a morbid-enhanced Brimstone Volley. I'd kept a Selesnya Charm in my hand, but I wasn't able to use it. It was the first hint that I wouldn't be as happy with that card.

Game 3 was more in my favor. I managed to hit a pair of Turn 2 and 3 Loxodon Smiters followed by pair of a Turn 4 and 5 Boros Reckoners. He didn't have a way out.

Round 3 vs. Dega (RWB) Midrange: 1-2

This was an interesting brew utilizing Boros Reckoner and Blasphemous Acts, while also having strong cards like Falkenrath Aristocrat and Aurelia, the Warleader; and Finishing everything off with Faithless Looting and Unburial Rites.

Game 1 I started strong with a T3 Huntmaster, which he answered with a Reckoner + Blas Acts combo to knock me to 8. Still, I managed to stick an Aurelia with a lot of creature support and swing in for lethal.

Game 2 wasn't even a game. He managed to get Reckoner out on T3 and Aristocrat out on T4, and despite my best effort, I didn't have a way to stop him from hitting Unburial Rites on Aurelia and swinging for absurd amounts of damage.

Game 3 I sideboarded in 2 Rest in Peace to deal with his 'yard interaction. I used it too late, however, and he used Rolling Temblor to mow down my Pilgrims. I got him down to 1, hitting a Reckoner T2 and following it up with both Restoration Angel and Thundermaw. But with me at 16, he attacked uninterrupted, knocked me to 13, and then shot me with Blasphemous Acts.

Round 4 vs. Selesnya Aggro: 1-0 (opponent dropped after G1)

This wasn't much of a game. He tried to mount some kind of offense, but I managed to gain 10 life via Thragtusk and put it out of reach. He had some sort of time constraint, so he had to leave.

Round 5 vs. Naya Blitz: 2-1

Game 1 went back of forth for a while. He knocked me down to 7 at one point, after which I dropped a Thragtusk. But despite the 12 life, he was able to Ghor-Clan Bloodrush + Boros Charm Double-Strike me for exactly lethal.

-2 Aurelia, -2 Domri Rade
+3 Loxodon Smiter, +1 Selesnya Charm

Game 2 was more my speed. I hit all my early removal and managed a Huntmaster of the Fells flipping, and continually pinging him, even though he'd gotten me down to 6. At one point he attacked with a huge Bloodrush, but I had a Selesnya Charm on hand to defend myself and exiled his creature. I dropped another Huntmaster and stabilized for the win.

Game 3 wasn't even close. I dropped a Turn 3 Thragtusk followed by a Turn 4 Restoration Angel. Facing down 28 life and a full board, he had to concede.

Top 8, R1 vs. UWR Flash: 2-1

This was an odd UWR build without Boros Reckoner or Geist of Saint Traft, and I think that definitely hurt it. Game 1 I came out very strong, following a Huntmaster of the Fells with a Thragtusk and just beating face.

I thought the above sideboarding would be the way to go. I was mistaken. I hadn't encountered his Runechanter's Pike yet, and that was definitely a game-changer with Moorland Haunt. Despite getting him down and fighting through not 1, but 2 Sphinx's Revelations (gaining him a total of 12 life/cards), I had him at 10. But he had a spirit and a Restoration Angel with a pike, and I didn't have an answer to that.

-2 Garruk Relentless
+2 Rest in Peace

I managed to drop Rest in Peace right on time, limiting what his Runechanter's Pike could do. But that was after my Turn 3 Thundermaw Hellkite, then a Loxodon Smiter. He was only able to ping away at me for 1 with his Invisible Stalker while I had my enormous beasts and dragons knocking away.

Top 8, R2 vs. Junk Reanimator: 2-1

I was very wary for this matchup. It definitely isn't one of my best. The deck's ability to hit a T3 or 4 Angel of Serenity is just deadly. Still, I have a lot of experience playing against it, and know the routes it can take.

Game 1 went tremendously in my favor. I managed to hit an early Huntmaster of the Fells, followed by Boros Reckoner and Aurelia to do just INSANE amounts of damage.

Game 2, I didn't really get on my feet. I had a bit of mana issues, and he continued to ping me with Restoration Angels. There wasn't anything I could do.

Game 3 was a HELL of a game. We went back and forth, even with him landing an early Angel of Serenity and scooping up a Huntmaster and some other stuff. He kept destroying my lands with Acidic Slime, leaving me with only 4 mana open at one point (including Avacyn's Pilgrim). But I had dropped a Rest in Peace to keep him off his graveyard. He also managed to Vault of the Archangel himself +10 life while we held our stalemate. I finally managed to draw my second Hellkite, but had to wait for my 5th land. My forest finally came. I played the Hellkite, and he scooped it up.

Top 8, R3 vs. Naya Aggro-Midrange - Split

This was the same guy I played twice in the FNM from 2 weeks ago. So I was sure I could win, but at 11:30 we were all tired and wanting to go home and rest up for the next morning's Standard 1K.

Final Record: 6-1 and Split

Final thoughts: definitely could have played better for a lot of my games. I really wasn't on my A-Game this week (I should have seen that Boros-Blas Acts coming). But I can't really complain.

Once again, I never actually played Angel of Serenity, and can't really imagine the match I would play it in. Maybe the mirror...or against Jund. But I'd probably rather have a Witchbane Orb...which was another card I was sorely missing. I think I'll remove Purify the Grave for the 1x Witchbane Orb...and maybe the Angel for the 2nd.

Selesnya Charm seems like good utility now, especially with Reanimator and all the Bloodrush I've been up against. There's nothing I like more than exiling your Bloodrushed creature.

At the same time, I miss my extra removal of 3x Searing Spears. At 2x, they just don't show up as often.

I'll post the less-than stellar results/report from today's Standard 1K, where I went 2-2 and dropped. I think it's important to acknowledge our shortcomings and stumbles, just as it is to recognize our successes. I probably could have finished the 5th Swiss round, but I decided to go home. My head wasn't in the game and I was tired from the late night last night.

So my LGS had a free Pack Wars tournament Saturday, and the people participating was me and 3 friends, rules of the turnament was, you couldn't look at your pack before the tournament and you got 3 of each basic land.

R1-Aganist a friend that in Constructed we share a very similar playstyle.

R1 G1:
He manged to get a one drop out. My turn I played a land (nothin I could play). Followed this way until T3 when I got something out, and on his 4th turn he One-Thousand lashed my guy. My turn nhothign special waiting to hit a green mana source for something, then on his turn hw got out a Skyknight Leggionaire. Got me to 10 life, then I hit an Angelic Edict to get rid of his Legionnare. Then ended up winning a few turns after that.

R1 G2:
Nothing really big until about T6when I hit a Ripscale Predator and he only had one creature, so won pretty quick.

R2 G1: Ended up playing a friend who is really good at the game.

Had to mulligan down to 5 because lack of spells. But anyway he only hit Basilica Guards, while I played Ripscale Predator T6. Since he couldn't block adn only had a defender out, I won pretty quickly.

R2 G2:

Kept my hand at 7 with 4 lands, a creature (Biovisionary), and 2 Sorcerys (Angelic Edict and Sheilded Passage). He hit a creature on T2. While I wasn't stuck utnil about T6 because lack of Green. So finally I was able to hit Biovisionary at 14 life. Then hit Ivy Strret Denizen.
Then as normal Ripscale later in the game. Took my opponent down to 2 life, then a removal spell got ris of Ripscale, but a Massive Raid hit when I had 2 creatures. So won and got a pack. Pulled the White Primordial guy completing my set of the Primordials.

So FNM this week. Ran general Naya Aggro deck borrowing some dual lands from a friend.

Round 1: Against a weird Orzhov tokens deck.

Game 1: Started with a pretty good opening hand and stayed at 7, won the dice roll and played. Dropped a Sacred Foundry and took the shock. Dropped a Legion Loyalist and swung 1. He went and drew into a Plains and passed. My second turn, Drew into my second Burning-Tree Emissary. So dropped those and a Lightning Mauler and swung 5. He played a Swamp and Doomed Traveler. My 3rd turn drew into a Frontline Medic. So dropped a Forest and played it. So swung for 7 and passed. Then he played a Plains and played Beckon Abberation. Then I swung with all and it was game.

Game 2: Followed the same pattern then he got a Vampire Nocturnus out and walled stuff. Got me down to about 10 then I swung game.

Record 1-0

Round 2: Against U/B/W Mill/Control

Game 1: Kept swinging into Restoration Angels while getting Drownyarded for 6 (he had 2 out). Ended up getting milled out because Jace, Memory Adept ultimate.

Game 2: He misplayed a few moves and ggot greedy with a Sphinx's Revaltion while at 4 life, so I Skullcracked him and swung game with Legion Loyalist.

Went to the local FNM on the 19th to play a bit of Magic. I'd made a few changes to the deck from last time, mostly in the sideboard in preparation for the inevitable Junk Reanimator matchup...that I never ended up playing. I guess no one was playing Junk last night. I went undefeated in Swiss rounds and lost the first match in top 8, but more of that later on.

I went with Naya Midrange again. I really considered running Anthony Lowry's most recent UWR Midrange deck, but I didn't really get to test with it at all and I didn't want to play a deck without proper testing. My local shop is rampant with Aggro anyway, so Naya Midrange always does pretty well.

Here's the list I was running. A few changes from last time: I put the Loxodon Smiters mainboard to shore up the first match against Aggro and cut down on the Planeswalkers. I also shored up my sideboard to help in the Junk Reanimator matchup with 3x Rest in Peace and 3x Selesnya Charm. Without actually playing a Reanimator deck, however, this never really came into play:

In the player's own words, this was a "janky" sort of deck. Something he threw together and thought would be a lot of fun. And it probably would have been if it had gone off. But I really hit some insane draws and had everything I needed. He was running Ulvenwald Tracker with the big Selesnya value creatures: Armada Wurm, Elderscale Wurm, Loxodon Smiter, Trostani, Thragtusk, Silklash Spider, etc.

In Game 1 he did manage to hit me some with both the Tracker and a Call of the Conclave Centaur Token. But an Aurelia coupled with a Ravager of the Fells and a Restoration Angel made it just way too much to handle.

Game 2 was even more one-sided. I got a Loxodon Smiter on T3, Thundermaw on T5 and hit for huge. Even after he Selesnya Charm'd my dragon, I still had 2 Smiters and a Boros Reckoner on field, and he was down to 3 life. I took the win.

Round 2 vs. Jund Aggro (2-1)

I didn't take very many notes at all this match, so I'll just summarize briefly. I took Game 1 after a bit of back-and-forth. He Dreadbore'd and Abrupt Decay'd a couple things (Smiter or Reckoner), but I managed to land a Thragtusk and a Restoration Angel and ended up chipping away at him that way.

Game 2 he curved insanely. Dropping T1 Experiment One, and T2 Burning Tree + Flinthoof Boar. Then hitting me with a T4 Hellrider. No way to fight against that.

Game 3 he was forced to Mull-to-5 and I kept a strong hand with plenty of removal, some ramp, and a Thragtusk, I believe. Despite the presence of Falkenrath Aristocrat and Flinthoof Boar, I managed to just out-fight him. In the end, Thragtusk and Avacyn's Pilgrim finished him off.

Round 3 vs. Turbofog (2-0)

During Game 1 I had no idea what my opponent was playing. I saw some Bant-colored lands so I thought he might be playing Bant Control, so I was sure to play very conservatively with my threats. I managed an INSANE amount of ramp that game. Going T1 Pilgrim, T2 Pilgrim + Farseek. I could have landed a T3 Aurelia if I had the 6th mana, but that didn't show up for a few more turns. Instead I dropped a Huntmaster of the Fells. He played a Sphinx's Revelation for 0 on his turn to keep in from flipping, but I attacked with the pair of 2/2s and let it flip on his turn, after which I hit him for 7 more damage. He Sphinx's Rev'd for 1, but I dropped Aurelia on my turn and he scooped it up.

Game 2 he kept a risky hand. He told me later that it was a 2 land hand without Green, but hand Sphinx's Revelation, 2 Farseeks, a Supreme Verdict, and a Snapcaster Mage. Every other land in his deck would produce Green, so if he drew into just one Green land he would be doing very well. I opened with a Turn 2 Loxodon Smiter and hit him down to 12 before dropping a Restoration Angel and a Thragtusk. He was stuck on 3 lands the whole time.

Round 4 vs. Mono-Red (2-1)

I felt pretty confident as Game 1 started, but he got a very explosive draw. Because he was on the play, he could attack with his Stromkirk Noble and burn my Avacyn's Pilgrim. That put me a turn behind and I couldn't drop my Loxodon Smiter for a full turn more. He threw down Hellrider and that was game.

Game 2 I was on the play and managed my Turn 2 Smiter. Followed by a T3 Smiter and a T4 Huntmaster, and a T5 Thragtusk. I also dropped Garruk Relentless and killed off a Rakdos Cackler. With that kind of board position there was no way he could fight back.

Game 3 was a bit more back and forth. But a combination of early-turn Smiters and a Huntmaster gave me enough juice to power through his board. Garruk cleared the way again, and Thundermaw flew in for the kill.

Round 5 vs. Jund Midrange - Split

We decided to split since we were both in the top 2 (I think I was in first by a small percentage of tiebreaker points). We were both guaranteed a Top 8 spot.

Top 8, R1 vs. Mono-Red (0-2)

Same player as R4. And my deck did not play very well. Game 1 I kept WAY too slow a hand, and he managed to burn me out for the last 3 points of damage at the end. I never really got off the ground.

Game 2 MY deck killed me. I was forced to mulligan DOWN TO 4! And despite landing 2 Huntmasters in a row, he had the burn and the Skullcrack to keep me from gaining the second set of life. Hellrider came down and that was that. It's super frustrating to lose to YOUR deck.

---

Final thoughts: I wish I hadn't over-sideboarded myself against Reanimator. There are only 1-3 Reanimator players at this shop, and I probably didn't need to dedicate that much sideboard to it. There's even less Jund Midrange or Esper Control, so Pithing Needle and Witchbane Orb didn't come in at all. Neither did Big Garruk, and I didn't see Domri once. I found myself wishing I had more removal all night in my Aggro matchups.

OK so this is probably my best FNM so far. I went 2-1 in matches and 4-2 in games.

Round 1 vs Dega Vampire/Human Tokens (I went 0-2)

Game 1: Took a opening hand with 2 gates and some 1 one drops. Almost won because Legion Loyalists battalion but a Dreadbore lost me the game.

Game 2- Followed Game 1 almost move for move.

Current Record 0-1

Round 2 vs. America control (I won 2-0)

Game 1- Won because I outraced the opponent. Kept a hand of Selesnya Guildgate, Champion of the Parish, Legion loyalist, 2 Frontline Medic, Mountain, and Sacred Foundry. At one point he got a Melek out and copied a Mizzium Mortars and killed a Loyalist and Frontline Medic. But drew into both of those creature again. Couldn't handle my board.

Game 2- Almost G1 move for move, but Mizzium into a Boros Charm so nothing of mine died.

Current Record 1-1

Round 3 vs. Izzet Control (I won 2-0)

Game 1- Took a hand with 3 gates and 1 shockland. At one point was at 3 life while opponent was at 20. But I killed his creature with a Spear. Couldn't stablize after that.

Game 2- Almost lost because a Nivix Cyclops into a Epic Expirement for 7. But I speared it twice before all the Instants gave him the bouses. But outraced him again.

Current Record 2-1

I'll do a more in depth thing later. I have baccalauriate later and I'm about to leave. Also should note I played against friends from school that I play against everyday in all 3 rounds. But my R3 opponent I had neevr played against with that deck. and I helped build R1 and R2 decks. But anyway

Tied with R1 Opponent for 4th and waled out with $10 in credit and the Judge's Familiar promo. Pretty good night. Also bought some guild packs and got a Rakdos, Lord of Riots, a Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord, and a Borborgymos Enraged.

Alright so DGM Game Day. After a pretty disappointing FNM the night before (I ended up 1-3), I was thinking that I may go just to watch and not play. But my friends were wanting to control Top 8 so I decided if I was there, might as well compete. So here we go.

Round 1-(B/U/G Mill)

Game 1- Alright so I took a hand of 3 basics, a Champion of the Parish, Boros Reckoner, and 2 Legion Loyalist. I won the roll and played. Dropped Mountain and Loyalist swinging in for 1. He played a Golgari Guildgate and passed. Drew a Sacred Foundry, and played it tapped. Then dropped the other Legion Loyalist and passed. He played some creature. He gave me the turn, and I played Plains and dropped the Reckoner. The next fe turns were almost move for move identical. He played some stuff to not take damage (Fog, and things like that) and some mill stuff. T6 he dropped a Consuming Abberation that ended up being a like a 20/20 but I wasn't scared. I ended up playing a bunch of creatures and overpowered him and he couldn't stabilize.

Sideboarding

-2 Giant Growth
-1 Lightning Mauler

+2 Elixir of Immortality
+1 Witchbane Orb

Game 2-

Drew into something close like last game but not 2 Loyalists and I drew a Witchbane Orb. Went pretty close to last game, but I killed his Abberation with an Elixir. Couldn't recover from my creatures.

Current Record 1-1

Round 2- (Dega Midrange)

Game 1 and 2-

These were so close to each other I am just going to put them under the same thing. Obzedat and Olivia Voldaren just overpowered me.....Yep that is about it. He stalled and killed my earlygame creatures got Obzedat out and I couldn't get rid of it.

Current Record 1-1

Round 3- (Selesnya Tokens)

Game 1- Took and decent hand, won the roll and played. Dropped a land and played a Champion. He played a Guildgate and passed. I played another land and Burning Tree into Lightning Mauler swinging for 5. Then he played Call of the Conclave. My turn, dropped Mountain into a Legion Loyalist, swung in for 6 and he couldn't block. Now at this point he said I probably would win and then all h**l broke out. He populated the crap out of his tokens and killed my Loyalist. He passed and I didn't really draw into anything good. He then populated some more and swung in for a bunch, I blocked and all my stuff died. Then repeat for game.

Game 2- Pretty similar to last game, except add an Unfliching Courage to the first token. Lost pretty quickly.

Current Record- 1-2

Note- At this point I was about to drop, I had a mean headache, and was really hungry, but I decided there wasn't going to split after Swiss so I decided WTH only 1 more match and I knew who it would be ( I was in 8th place and this guy was in 9th before this round).
So we played

Game 1- (Gruul Midrange)

This is a deck I play against frequently and normally I win. Drew a god hand. 2 Sacred Foundry, Sunpetal Grove, Rootbound Crag, Legion Loyalist, Boros Reckoner, and Stromkirk Noble. This went by pretty quickly, nut draws almost across the board. Boros Elites, Champion of the Parish, and Boros Charms everywhere. He couldn't stablize after Reckoner hit the field.

Game 2- Not a great hand (Gates) but I still did pretty good. 1 of each gate I run, 2 Nobles, Champion of the Parish, 2 Boros Charms. Got rid of the gates. Drew into some creatures and stuff. Got quite a few creatures out and he couldn't keep up.

Current Record 2-2

Ended up 7th. Traded to get 2 more Trostani's Summoners for my binder. and got a Melek.

I hadn't been to an FNM (or any Magic-related event) in over a month, since April 19th, actually, so I was glad to be getting back into gear and playing some games. It was a smaller group this time at Coy's, with only around ~20 people (rather than the usual 30-35). But we'd still be having the 5 rounds of Swiss with cut to Top 8.

I went in with only partial information on how the local meta had changed. Coy's is (or was) firmly, and heavily, Aggro-based. In previous events, I'd play Aggro in 4 out of 5 rounds of Swiss and at least once in Top. I had talked to one of the employees the day before while playing EDH, and he'd said that there was some trickle-down from the overall greater-meta in terms of finally moving away from Aggro, but there was still a whole mess of it. So I approached this week's FNM with that idea in mind, knowing that I'd have a relatively solid G1 against Aggro, and sideboard in just a few things that might help.

Unfortunately for me, Aggro had all but left the building this week. It was a smaller crowd, with only some of the more experienced and creative players (though there were some others). And I was facing an onslaught of either Control, or non-traditional Aggro decks.

Round 1 vs. Keenan (Simic "Stuff"). 2-0

This wasn't really a fair match. He was playing with Guildgates and limited Shock/Check lands, which really slowed him down. I only saw a few creatures in play for him, but I did see a Gyre Sage, a Somberwald Sage, and 2 Biovisionary across the two games we played.

Game 1: I was on the play and managed a Turn 4 Thragtusk thanks to a Turn 1 Avacyn's Pilgrim followed by a Turn 2 Loxodon Smiter. That was followed by a Restoration Angel, and I was up to 28 life with more-than-lethal on board. He'd been stuck on mana the whole (or most of the) game, and had only managed to play a Gyre Sage and Alpha Authority. Didn't seem very useful.

Game 2: I began the same way; though this time I started with a Turn 1 Pilgrim followed by a Turn 2 Voice of Resurgence. I hit Thragtusk again while he stumbled on mana, He managed to bring out a Biovisionary, but that was killed in combat rather quickly. He followed with a second, and gave it 3 +1/+1 counters with Give//Take, but I exiled it with Selesnya Charm and swung for lethal.

Round 2 vs. Matt (UWR Superfriends). 2-0

My first taste of Control that night, and I wasn't looking forward to it. I got very luck this round however, and managed a clean sweep. I had removed my 2x Cavern of Souls this week, expecting ALL the Aggro. And I was really missing them now.

Game 1: He was struggling this game after I landed a Voice of Resurgence and 2 consecutive Thragtusks. Those and Advent of the Wurm really shut him down, and he never saw AEtherling (his win-con).

Game 2: Followed the same as Game 1. Even though I managed to drop an Advent of the Wurm and a Boros Reckoner to drop him to 9, he was able to lifegain back up to 15 via Vault of the Archangel. He finished the game with a Blasphemous Act. Even though we both had Reckoner's on the field. I was at 6 and he was at 15. He managed to survive it.

Round 4 vs. Jeff (UWR Auras). 2-0

I was very apprehensive about this matchup, since Auras, like Aristocrats, is probably one of my worse matchups. I have to play and draw very well to beat an Invisible Stalker with all his pants on (Auras). Somehow I managed.

Game 1: I was on the play, and managed to drop a Turn 2 Loxodon Smiter. To his Turn 2 Invisible Stalker. Next turn I swung him down to 14. Then he swung for 3. I played a second Smiter. He put all his "pants" on the stalker and hit me down to 3. At this point I was almost ready to lose, but I looked at my hand and saw 2 Searing Spears. I looked at my board and saw 8 power. I looked at my lands...3 lands. 2 red sources and 1 Kessig Wolf Run. I needed a miracle. I drew a Temple Garden. I shocked myself down to 1 life, swung for 8, and speared 2x for 6. The look of disbelief on his face was phenomenal.

Game 2: This was a slobberknocker. I kept the janky-est hand you can possible imagine. Here's what it was: 2x Avacyn's Pilgrim, 1x Rootbound Crag, 1x Mountain, 1x Thragtusk, 1x Voice of Resurgence, and ??? (some creature, probably Loxodon Smiter). It was a HELL of a Hand. But I kept it. I don't have much for my notes this game, but it took a LONG time. I know I managed to ramp out to a Turn 3 Thragtusk and Turn 4 Aurelia off the 2 Pilgrims and drop him from 23 to 15. I made a huge blunder in attacking Thragtusk into his Ethereal Armor Stalker (a 4/4 with First Strike). By that point, my Voice of Resurgence had died and was getting HUGE. I continued to clog up my side of the board with all sorts of creatures and make him even bigger, scoring Huntmaster/Ravager flips in the process. Neither of us could attack into the other without dying next turn. He had a 10/10 Flying, First Strike, and Lifelink Invisible Stalker on the field. In the end, however, my Token was a 17/17, and I attacked with 2 Huntmasters ready to flip (into Ravagers) on the next turn. He scooped.

Round 5 vs. Chris (Esper AEtherling Control). 0-2

My second loss of the night. I was really regretting my decision to replace Cavern of Souls with more colored mana now.

Game 1: I couldn't get anything going. Every creature I played was Far//Away'd, countered, or hit with Supreme Verdict. In the end, AEtherling ripped me to shreds.

Game 2: I did a bit better, knocking him down to 13 at some points. I tried to stick a Pithing Needle to neuter Aetherling, but he countered it. And while I managed to land a Witchbane Orb to be prevented from getting milled out, he inevitable used Debt to the Deathless to kill me dead.

Game 1: This was an interesting deck, but one that only works when you don't have a lot of Aggro to go up against. He opened with a Cathedral Sanctifier, then spent time bouncing it with Deputy of Acquittals and gaining life with Chalice of Life. My efforts to mount an offensive were neutered by a Supreme Verdict and a Terminus. So in the end he pinged me down to 10 with Staff of Nin, then 2x Chalice of Death did the rest.

Game 2: I threw out a pair of early Thragtusks, and fought through a Supreme Verdict. I managed to land Pithing Needle (calling Chalice of Life) and just beat face for a while. We never ended up seeing the Chalice, but he did Banishing Stroke my Needle. It didn't matter, in the end, because that was game.

Game 3: I took a mull-to-6 and kept an opening hand with Pithing Needle. I knew this time not to play it until I actually saw the card I wanted to neuter. I opened with a Turn 3 Thragtusk and Nick never got a chance to come back in the game. I had too much offensive with Thundermaw as well.

Top 8, Round 2 vs. Chris (Esper AEtherling Control). 2-1

This was the same match as Round 5 of Swiss, and it was time for me to get my revenge.

Game 1: Out of the gate I hit a Voice of Resurgence and a Loxodon Smiter to apply some early pressure. Thragtusk came down as well to really deal some damage. He tried stabilizing with a Blood Baron of Vizkopa, but I had the Mizzium Mortars in hand. Killed it, and swung for lethal.

Game 2: I took a mull-to-6 and kept my hand. He Duress'd me and stole my Searing Spear. But that next turn I drew into Pithing Needle and called Aetherling. He made a sad face. I also managed a Witchbane Orb to keep from being milled out. Still, wasn't able to punch through his counters and bounce spells. He hit me twice with Aetherling (even though he couldn't activate its abilities), and then finished me off with Debt to the Deathless.

Game 3: I kept a rather risky hand, but it paid off. He was stuck on lands in the beginning. I played a Turn 2 Voice of Resurgence and attacked, leaving 2 mana open for a Boros Charm. He gave me a token via Sphinx's Revelation, then tried to Supreme Verdict on his turn. I had the charm waiting. He couldn't catch up after that, and even though he was able to Verdict later on, my 1/1 Elemental token kept chipping away with Kessig Wolf Run. Eventually knocking him down to 3 life and right in range for a Searing Spear.

Top 8, Final Round vs. Matt (UWR Superfriends). 0-2

By this point I was exhausted, it was closing in on Midnight. I offered to split so we'd each walk away with $17.50 in store credit. But he wanted to play it out. Suffice to say, I wasn't really in the game and I don't remember the plays all that well. He played a really good Control game and I just couldn't keep up with it. In the end, AEtherling, some Ral Zarek extra turns, and a mana color-screw kept this a 0-2 for me.

Still I was overall quite happy with the way things went down. Control is a tough nut for Naya Midrange to crack, and to take 2nd place was pretty impressive facing down that field. Certain cards were real all-stars that night: Pithing Needle, Witchbane Orb, and Boros Charm. If the meta doesn't shift back to Aggro, here's the version of the deck I'd play next time:

Some backstory on this deck as it isn't my normal brew of fun. After doing decent at Game the previous week, and managing to snag 5 Trostani's Summoner promos,I decided to make a Bant tokens deck. and decided that when my shop got the event deck (Selesnya) I wiould buy it and pump up my deck with stuff from that. and aboput 5 minutes before the event I decided that I've played the crap out of Blitz and use this new deck instead.

R1- Kris (Izzet Control-ish deck(I made the deck)) This was his first FNM

Game 1

Took a hand of 4 lands, a Summoner, Cloudshift, and Biovisionary. He won the roll but deicded that I play. So dropped an Island and passed. He played Izzet Guildgate and passed to me. This goes on until about T6 and I drew Urban Evolution with 6 mana out. So cast it and draw another Summoner Progenitor Mimic, and I think a Wake the Reflections. He plays a Frostburn Weird and passes. I drop my last in hand land and Biovisionary. He doesn't do anything on his turn and passes. I play Mimic copying Biovisionary. He plays another Wierd, my upkeep get the Bio-token. and Wake the Reflections and end to game.

Game 2:

Really similar to game 1, he was constantly thinking out loud and I knew what was in his hand most of the time so no risky moves, and any boardwipes were met with a Rootbourn Defense. So yeah I won.

Current Record 1-0

R2- Taylor (Gruul Aggro)

I went into this knowing I was losing, Aggro and m,y deck takes t5 at the least to set up.

G1- Took some hand that was decent, he won the roll and played. Rakdos Cackler unlesahed. i played a land and passed.He played a Flinthoof Boar and swung in for 2. and repeat this with progressivly more stuff every turn.

\G2- same thing too many creatures and I hit 0 removal.

Current Record 1-1

R3 Daniel (Esper Mill)

G1- I had never played agaisnt this guy before but I knew the list. I played some creatures and was hit with Verdicts, Rifts, Tides, and Termisus's. ot milled iout pretty quick.

G2- Same thing.

Current Record 1-2

R4- Cody (Selesnya Tokens) My deck is based on his deck, he used to run a very similar build to mine with less things to bounce my Summoers and stuff.

G1- We matched Creature for creature until he gave his flying with something. I lost

G2- I took a very slow hand not thinking (it was 11:30) and couldn't get my set up. Lost

1. I need a way to get more tokens out faster. Earliest I can hit Summoner is 5 assuming both Farseeks, or 1 Farseek and Urban Evolution. So I'm probably going to add in at least 3 of Midnight Haunting/Lingering Souls each.

2. This list is for more casual games, so I'm probably bot going to drop the loads of money in for lands when my tournament deck isn't completed yet.

3. This deck has a major weakness to milling and board wipes. So Elixirs, back from the Brink, and maybe even 2 Witchbane Orbs should go in. idk

Went back to FNM last night hoping to win the Izzet Charm promo. I actually like the regular art for Izzet Charm better, but promos are promos. There weren't quite as many people this week, with a lot of newer players, so there were only 4 rounds of Swiss before cutting to top 8. I'd made some interesting tweaks to Big Stompy Naya Midrange, the deck I played last night you can find here:

The most notable change was the increase in both creatures and Domri Rade. This included 2x mainboard Tajic, Blade of the Legion while dropping Huntmaster of the Fells to a 1-1 split between main and side. More on that later.

Round 1 vs. Bill (UWR Control) 2-0

He was pretty new to the local game, it seemed. He kept missing triggers and played very slowly. In game 1 I managed a turn 2 Voice of Resurgence and a turn 3 Domri Rade. Domri was hit with a Warleader's Helix, but I managed to drop both a Restoration Angel and a Thragtusk and close out the game. Game two unfolded much the same way. With a Turn 2 Loxodon Smiter starting the beat-down. He never got his momentum going, and I took it rather easily.

Round 2 vs. Chris (Junk Tokens) 2-1

Another new player (or someone I hadn't seen/played before). Despite hitting Intangible Virtue and Call of the Conclave in Game 1, my combination of Aurelia and a next-turn Thundermaw Hellkite closed out the game. Game 2 didn't go my way. I couldn't muster enough offense to break through his army of centaurs and wurms, nor could I get a defense strong enough to last it. Game 3 ended quickly. An early Thragtusk put me ahead of anything he could muster. I sat on Selesnya Charm to shut down his Advent of the Wurm tokens, and Aurelia **** it down.

Round 3 vs. Jeff (UWR Control) 2-1

Jeff (who I played last time) called his deck UWR one-ofs. He played (basically) 1 of all the fun UWR cards and then sideboarded into more consistency. Game 1 was a bit of a blow-out. Despite him Helix'ing my Domri Rade. Thragtusk did a lot of work, knocking him all the way down to 6 life. Then he countered my end-of-his-turn Restoration Angel, but hesitated enough for me to know that he had a second Counterspell in hand (either Dissipate or Counterflux). I had a 7 mana and a Thundermaw Hellkite in my hand, and drew Voice of Resurgence. If I dropped the Hellkite, I knew it'd get countered. So I played Voice of Resurgence instead, hoping to bait out the Counterspell. Instead of countering, he played Sphinx's Revelation for 4, bringing him up to 10 life. With him tapped out, I dropped my dragon and swung for lethal.

Game 2 wasn't even a game. I got stuck on 2 mana for most of my turns and he just beat me down with Restoration Angel and Snapcaster Mage until I was dead. Game 3 was more like Game 1. I had a strong offensive with Domri Rade and Garruk, PH to continually churn out attackers. Tajic played pretty well with those extra creatures, and with him I was able to draw 7 off of Garruk's -3. That set me up with 2x Voice of Resurgence and 2x Boros Charms in hand. With him at 9 life, I played the two Voices and swung with a Thundermaw. I tried to burn him with Boros Charm and he countered it. I played the second one, and he scooped.

Round 4 vs. Eric (Junk Aristocrats) 1-1 split

We were both 3-0 at that point and a lock for top 8. But we played a few games for fun. The first I took it off of Aurelia and Kessig Wolf Run. The second and third I just played miserably, despite having Rest in Peace and Witchbane Orb respectively. I could have won the second, but his board of tokens and my missing Wolf Run made it very difficult to do anything, and game 3 ended with me a bit shorter on Mana than I would have wanted.

Top 8, Round 1 vs. Marcus (Jund Aggro) 1-2

At this point of the night I was beginning to lose focus and just wasn't in the tournament as much. I won the first game very handily. Voice of Resurgence into 2x Boros Reckoners is hard to deal with. Especially when you follow up with a Thundermaw Hellkite. Game 2 I tried to put up a fight, but a combination of slow mana and higher-costing cards-in-hand cost me the game. Game 3 he just exploded out of the gate, and I couldn't do anything to stop it.

I ended up with 2 packs. RTR and GTC. I pulled a Gyre Sage in GTC and a foil Izzet Charm in RTR. Irony. Overall a fun night. I need to figure out a way to shore up my aggro matches again, especially against the more resilient Aggro decks like Jund. I might give Terminus a try.

Still, by the time I'm able to play my next FNM, M14 will have come out, so I've got a lot to consider before then.

FNM Report 7-12-13 The Gathering Cards and Games ( I know this is late)

OK so this was my best FNM ever, I went to a new sop to sell some of my Modern stuff and decided to compete in there free FNM. New meta and stuff figured why not it can't hurt to play some new people.

Played my new Naya Aggro deck and did amazing.

R1- America Something

Game 1- Ended up mulling to 5because land issues, but my final hand Temple Garden, Sunpetal Grove, 2 Dryad Militants, and a Ghor-Clan Rampager. I won the dice roll and played. Dropped the garden shocking myself and played a Militant and passed, he dropped a Boros Guildgate and passed back to me. I drew into a Voice of Resurgance and played it. He dropped a Foundry and speared the Voice giving me the token. I drew into a land played it and the Militant and passed. He didn't do anything (no land drop either). I drew into Signal the Clans played it choosing, Reckoner, Rampager, and Voice. Ended up with Reckoner getting picked. So that happened. next turn I played it ( he just played some basic land). Played the Reckoner and dropped a land. He played a Nivix Cyclops.I played another Signal choosing the same creatures as last time. Ended up Reckoner getting picked again, which is pretty awesome. PLayed it my next turn and just overpowered him.

G1- We went creature for creature for a while which wasn't really bad ended up getting both Reckoners and 1 Voice out among some other beatsticks (Flinthoofs and things like that). He ended up not getting anything to get ahead of me and I just overpowered him with stuff his removal was met with Charms and things to make my creatures stay on the feild. Overpowered him pretty nicely.

Sideboard: -3 Ghor-Clan Rampager
+2 Boros Charm, +1 Selesnya Charm

G2- Pretty different from G1, same result at the end, but kept my 7 card hand. PLayed some land and a 1 drop, he played a tapland (Woodland Cemetary???) and passed, I played a land and a Voice. He pillared the Voice . After this is was kinda like last game just different creatures. But I Signaled and got my stuff out after a while. Won quick after that.

Current Result 2-0 (Looking pretty good right now).

R3: Bant Control/Life gain combo.

I don't remember much from this match because it was getting late, but it went something like this.

G1- I drew a awesome hand and won like T6 with Voice token, Reckoner and some small creatures.

G2- This was his game becuase Control, Removal and Life gain. He took it after a fun, long drawn out game.

Something to note in being cocky, he said in between G2 and G3 that I "Wasn't going to win before T6 and definatley on T4, and I wished him good luck (he was really cocky about it)

G3- Hit my curve perfectly, T1 Militant, T2 Militant and Ex 1, T3 Reckoner and T4 Voice and Boar, he didn't have any creatures on field and was completely untapped aman wise, but I was packing a Searing Spear and a Boros Charm, so I was confident, earlier attacks had him down to 4, but he didn't look worried. So I swung house, he Druid's Deliveranced and I said ok and in responce Boros Charm for the match. T5 win.

Current Record 3-0 (This is awesome)

R4- This was the match people were warning me about, this was the best player in the shop but I wasn't scared. We were the only undefeated people in the room. I went up and said that we were matched for R4 and he asked my record, I said 3-0 and he had the same record. But he was doing the prerelease and offered to just draw because it was late and we were already going to get 1st and 2nd, I was tired from a long day and he was wanting to relax a bit before prerelease. so I said sure. But I did ask if we coiuld do 1 casual game just because I wanted to see what the fuss was about. So he said yeah and we played

Casual Game- I kept a pretty good hand, could've been better but whatever. Played a land and Militant. He played a land and passed back, I played a land and a Voice. He played a land a speared the Voice giving me the token and passed. I drew a Signal. Played my Stomping Grounds and then it choosing Flinthoof Boar, Voice, and Reckoner and Voice was chosen. So I passed. It went back and forth for a little while, but nothing to big was done. Then I drew Signal the clans nuber 2, Chosee Boar, Rampager, and Reckoner and this time I had luck on my side and got Reckoner. Played it the next turn and he had nothing to o against my field state, so I started hitting for some major damage, he ended up drawing some damage prevention thing and I burned with I think a Charm for the win.

Final Record 3-0-1. Ended up in 2nd out of 23 people and nabbed a Rakdos Cackler promo (One of the best arts I have seen)

Notes from the night

Signal the Clans - This card is stupidly powerful in this type of deck, I was able to hit it when needed and get the thing that changed the game in most cases.

Voice of Resurgance - I knew this card was good (a $60 card better be good). But in the right matchup it alone stopped the opponent dead in there tracks.

Boros Reckoner - This card also made people thinik about targets for burn spells, and who and what to attack with, I think people were expecting a Blas Act.

Loxodon Smiter I hit these sparse during my matches but when I hit them they got at least 1 attack in, always was nice to get.

Decklist: ( This is a rough list of the deck, I seem to have left my deck at a friends house over the weekend.)

Went to a different shop back in NY to hang out and found them ready to start a Monday Standard. There were 6 other people, so I figured "why not". It was only $5 and something to do. I went in with Naya Midrange, which has undergone some drastic changes. I had it set up with a miser Garruk, Caller of Beasts in the maindeck along with Assemble the Legion, Warleader's Helix, and Unflinching Courage somewhere between Main and Side boards. But I ended up removing all of that for Ruric Thar, 2 Mizzium Mortars, and a 3rd Selesnya Charm.

Round 1 vs. 4-Color Midrange (no Blue) 2-1

Game 1 went easy in my favor. Dropped early threats like Voice of Resurgence, Loxodon Smiter, and Domri Rade to keep the pressure on. He got stuck on 3 or 4 lands and couldn't do anything but main-phase Putrefy one of my Voice tokens. Game 2 he did very well, and ended up shutting me down with a miracled bonfire + a Tusk/Tmaw on field for lethal. Game 3 I started out aggressively and just killed it. He kept a risky hand and never drew the 5th land that would let him play his Tusks and Thundermaws.

==Round 2 vs. Maze's End 1-2

Game 1 I couldn't muster enough offense through all his fog effect cards. And he maze's ended me. Game 2 I just had too much going, especially with my Boros Charm to protect me from a Supreme Verdict. Game 3 I kept the WORST hand and had no offensive plays until Turn 4, so that really was a blowout.

==Round 3 vs. Gruul Aggro/Blitz 2-1

He wrecked my face Game 1 with stuff like Hellrider, some Unleashed Rakdos Cacklers, and a timely Ghor-Clane Bloodrush. Game 2 I sided in my Scavenging Oozes and opened up with them. Ooze into Voice into another Ooze. And I kept growing and growing them. My second Ooze was a 9/9 by the time he conceded. Game 3 unfolded much the same way as Game 2. He dumped his hand onto the field within the first few turns. I was happy to trade my Voice and Ooze with his Cackler and Boar, get a token, and then drop a second Ooze the next turn...with all the yummy graveyards to eat up. I kept gaining life. In the end, I dropped Thundermaw and hit him down to 15. The next turn, I attacked with the dragon again and pumped him to an 8/5 with Wolf run (dropping him to 7). Then I fought my dragon with my Reckoner (via Domri) and shot another 8 at his dome.

Went back for my first FNM since sometime in June. Ended up making it into Top 8 and then being eliminated in the first round. I'll do a quick recap and keep things short. Went with Naya again, though I'm not sure how happy I am with the direction that I've taken it. It's much more akin to an Aggro deck now, which isn't exactly what I want. I'll have to take the deck back to the drawing board--because I really like it, but don't exactly want to play Aggro like that.

More on that later. Here's the Swiss Rounds breakdown:

R1 vs. Stephen (Dimir Control) 2-0
This match started quickly. He had a lot of removal, with things like Doom Blade, Far//Away, and Essence Scatter/Syncopate. In the end though, he ran out of answers and had nothing for my Thundermaw Hellkite, that managed to attack twice. Game two played out much the same. Though I boarded in Pithing Needles, Sigarda, and a Witchbane Orb to protect me from his sac effects and Drownyards. In the end, he wasted his counterspells on my Voices, Oozes, leaving me the chance to drop a pair of Thragtusks, a Sigarda (which he had NO answer for), and a Thundermaw.

R2 vs. Tom (Naya Blitz) 1-2
I got kinda steamrolled this round, even though I knew what he was playing. Game 1 he took over with multiple Champions of the Parish and Silverblade Paladins. I managed a sneak-win Game 2 through some bad blocking choices and a timely Selesnya Charm pump. Game 3 I couldn't even muster a decent defense before he took it over with Sigarda and Gavony Township.

R3 vs. Marcus (Nivix Blitz) 2-0
I took this rather handily, even though he dropped me to 10 via Guttersnipe. I never let him start pumping his Nivix Cyclops, and his removal couldn't handle stuff like Thundermaw Hellkite and my Reckoners. Game 2 unfolded the same way, except he couldn't get any offense going. I had lots of removal. Despite him countering an Aurelia and a Thundermaw, my Scavenging Ooze and Boros Reckoners were enough to get through.

R4 vs. Tony (Bant Enchantments) 2-1
He took a mull-to-5 in Game 1, putting him at a severe disadvantage. Despite that, I continually managed to get the offensive going with Thundermaw, Voices, Oozes, and the rest. Game 2 he dropped a Sublime Archangel and gave it pro-whatever with Brave the Elements to get past my blockers and kill me. Game 3 stalled out for a while, despite him exiling 2 of my Thundermaws with Rings and Charms. I finally managed to survive at 1 with his attack, then pump with Gavony and Selesnya Charm for exactly lethal.

R5 vs. Eric (Junk Reanimator)
We split because we were a shoe-in for Top 8 and he was playing a Warcraft game.

Top 8 Vs. Matt (Orzhov Control) 1-2
Game 1 I had an awesome draw. Ghor-Clan Bloodrushing over his Mutavault with my Voice of Resurgence, and having enough creatures to tap down his Desecration demon and hit for lethal. Games 2 & 3 I over-sideboarded and lost some of that aggression. I also never drew my removal, like Selesnya Charm or Bonfire. And eventually his Desecration Demons and Restoration Angels ran me over. I also never got past 3 lands on game 3. So all my Thundermaw draws weren't very useful.

===

Overall I liked the way the deck played. I think if I keep going this route I'd have to cut some of the less-aggro creatures for a full set (or 3x) of Ghor-Clan Rampagers. Right now the deck is very much in the middle of things. Not Aggro, not Midrange (enough). I might want to try and move back towards Midrange. But Naya functions better with a higher creature base. We'll see. I never played the typical control decks, so Boros Charm and Pithing Needle didn't really help out all that much. Neither did Witchbane Orb. Though there were some decks that I might have played where those would be better off.

[FNM] Report - September 20th, 2013

I figured this was my last chance to play with the cards that I've been really enjoying for the past year or so, and I tweaked my deck accordingly. I'd already taken apart the other Standard decks that I'd built for the season (UWR Midrange and Jund Midrange), so that left me with my usual Naya Midrange deck, Naya on the Warpath. I've loved this deck since GTC released the powerhouses of Aurelia, the Warleader, Domri Rade, Boros Reckoner, and Boros Charm. With the aggression of Thundermaw Hellkite, the hard-to-deal-with Sigarda, Host of Herons, Avacyn's Pilgrim mana-fixing, and the Checklands (Clifftop Retreat, Sunpetal Grove, and Rootbound Crag) leaving the format, I knew the deck just wouldn't be the same. Sure, things would be replacing what I lose, but it things would certainly have to change.

I went in with a modified list, eschewing my previous Restoration Angels for Ghor-Clan Rampager. I also cut back to a single Aurelia, the Warleader and only 2x Scavenging Ooze to make room 2x for Sigarda, Host of Herons in the maindeck. Finally, I cut the 2x Bonfire of the Damned for a Boros Charm and a Garruk Relentless, which were actually very solid additions. Finally, I tweaked the board to add some lifegain, some catch-all removal, and the Blasphemous Act to combo with Boros Reckoner.

Round 1 vs. Brandon (GW Humans) 2-0
I had some very strong starts this round. Ghor-Clan Rampager proved his worth as a more-than-one-of and I just kept smashing through his defenses. Thundermaw proved a powerhouse once again, and combined with the lone Boros Charm let me take an easy sweep through this round.

Round 2 vs. Jeff (UW Control) 2-1
Jeff had recently Top-4'd a SCG open with a UWR version of his deck, but the lack of red kinda hurt him this matchup. Game 1 I opened with a Voice of Resurgence to keep him from casting too many spells. Sigarda was also a huge problem for him, especially combined with Domri Rade. He managed to gain quite a bit of life with Blind Obedience and keep me from attacking right away. But I swept through in the end. Game 2 went back and forth quite well. But a series of Supreme Verdicts and a Planar Cleansing left it just impossible for me to fight back. Game 3 was back, solidly, in my favor. All I took damage from was a shockland. In the end, it wasn't even Thundermaw or Sigarda that won me the day, but Voice of Resurgence and its tokens.

Round 3 vs. Tom (Golgari Control) 2-1
I took Game 1 rather handily. Fighting through his removal, and Mutilates with Ghor-Clan bloodrushes, Boros Reckoners, and Sigarda. Game 2 I struggled on mana and he just had too much going. He got Liliana of the Veil and Vraska both going at once. Game 3 I came back with a vengeance. Fighting damage through with Thragtusks and Desecration Demons. At one point, I revealed a Loxodon Smiter off Domri Rade while he had Liliana of the Veil out on his side of the field. He proceeded to + Liliana on his next turn and gave me a free Smiter. He managed to force me into sacing via Liliana and destroyed something with Thundermaw. I dropped Aurelia next turn (at 4 life) and killed both Planeswalkers, and then had Boros Charm backup for next turn.

Round 4 vs. Josh (Naya Aggro - probably) Split
We were both undefeated and guaranteed for Top 8, so we split.

Top 8 vs. Brandon (Gruul "Stuff") 2-0
Both of us started out well enough. I managed a Turn 2 Boros Reckoner while he enchanted a Gladecover Scout with Madcap Skills (but didn't attack). I attacked the next turn with my Smiter, then Bloodrushed and Boros Charmed, dealing 16 damage and knocking him to 1. He scooped it up. He managed a bit more offense Game 2, but I stabilized with a Huntmaster of the Fells and allowed him to transform, knocking him down to 8. Then, with Reckoner of the field, I cast Blasphemous Act, and won the match.

Top 8 vs. Eric (Big Boros) 2-1
We had a pretty good Game 1. I managed a Turn 2 Domri Rade, which let me pick off his creatures with Boros Reckoners. I cast Aurelia with him at 7, knocked him to 1, and he scooped. Game 2 I kept a terrible mull-to-6, and was dead before I even knew it. Game 3 was a slobberknocker. He probably had the game if he'd played smarter, and if he remembered that his red burn spells could get back Chandra's Phoenix from his graveyard. I had Garruk, the Veil-Cursed out, which allowed me to pick off his smaller creatures. At one point, he cast Zealous Conscripts, stole my Garruk, and sacrificed the Conscripts to search his library for a Thundermaw Hellkite to put in his hand. That would have won him the game (with me at 5), but I drew a Selesnya Charm. The next turn, with him at 11, I sacrificed a Deathtouch Wolf to search out my own Thundermaw. Played it, swung with it and another wolf (6 damage) and cast Boros charm to give my Thundermaw double strike and exactly lethal damage.

Top 8 vs. Tom (Golgari Control) Split
Neither of us felt like playing the last round again. I was still pretty intent on playing the Midnight prerelease and didn't want to be burned out.

In the end, I got $20 store credit, a promo, and had a fantastic time. I really loved the way this deck played tonight. Sigarda, Garruk, Huntmaster, and Thundermaw were all-stars. And it was a great sendoff. Plus, I finally got to assemble my Blasphemous Act + Boros Reckoner combo to kill someone. I had a great last FNM for the Innistrad Standard season. Couldn't have asked for a better night.

[FNM] Report - December 13th, 2013

With the fiancé out and about on Medical Residency interviews I decided to meet with some friends I hadn't seen in a while for a bit of FNM. It'd been…well…I hadn't played a serious Standard game since October 18th. Almost 2 months. That's a long time to be out of the format. Luckily I've kept up with developments and deck strategies, so I was well aware of how things were progressing.

On the other hand, I hadn't made changes to my deck since then either. Or since eschewing the Gruul Devotion deck for straight up Gruul Aggro/Midrange. I hadn't been doing too well in the RTR-THS era Standard. But I also hadn't really played much with Gruul either. So I was looking forward to it. This store has some very high level players, and I anticipated a slew of the devotion decks. Specifically Blue, Black, and Red-based decks. And that's exactly what I got.

I'll do a quick write-up of the 3 rounds, because I kept things pretty relaxed and didn't take that many notes. I'll write basically what I remember, which isn't my Sideboarding, unfortunately.

Round 1 vs. Eric (Mono-Blue Devotion) 2-1
I took Game 1 pretty handily. I was on the receiving end of a few hits from Judge's Familiar, but I had Polukranos and Domri Rade relatively early. Domri allowed me to fight an evolved Cloudfin Raptor, and killing Domri with the Familiar left him open to a 5-point swing by Polukranos. I followed with a Kalonian Tusker. He dropped Master of Waves with a whole lot of devotion out. I had enough mana to activate Polukranos's Monstrous ability (X=1). He responded with a Rapid Hybridization, and I responded in turn by activating the Monstrous ability a second time (with the first still on the stack and thus not yet resolved). Polukranos killed the Master, I got a beast, and I swung in with the Tusker to drop him to 12. He was on the defensive, and I swing the next turn with the Beast and the Tusker to drop him to 6. He hit an overloaded Cyclonic Rift, but I flashed in a Boon Satyr and played a Stormbreath Dragon next turn.

Game 2 was much more solidly in his favor. The matchup isn't very interactive, so it basically boils down to who hits who hardest and fastest. I took a few hits from Raptors and Familiars before he dropped Thassa and a Nightveil Specter. Still, I had also managed to play a Mistcutter Hydra with 5 counters on it to put him at 10. I had a Boon Satyr in hand and managed to hit him down to 1 life. But with Thassa active and Nykthos in play, I was dead next turn.

Game 3 was a bit more back-and-forth. I hit a turn 4 Stormbreath Dragon (I would have had it a turn earlier, but he killed my Elvish Mystic). A second dragon on turn 5 knocked him down to 8 life. But then he overloaded another Cyclonic Rift and knocked the 2 dragons and some mana dorks back to my hand. I hand 6 mana next turn, so I cast my dragon and passed to him. He played a Thassa and didn't swing in. I drew Ghor-Clan Rampager. I attacked with the dragon, and he blocked with the Familiar (which, looking back, he shouldn't have been able to do, b/c pro-White). I bloodrushed, knocking him to 1. Then used Flesh//Blood to kill him the rest of the way. Even if he'd blocked with just Nightveil, I would have won the game.

Round 2 vs. Ross (Junk Devotion-ish Midrange) 2-1Game 1 here was solidly in his favor. I put up a strong offensive, but made a mistake and attacked my Polukranos into his bigger Scavenging Ooze. It was a dumb move. And I have no idea why I did it. He had Desecration Demon, Pack Rat, a huge Ooze, and Erebos out on the field to my field of mana dorks. Even with Nylea and a lot of mana, I couldn't push through enough damage.

Game 2 I took it easily, even with a mull-to-6. I only took damage from a shockland. I played out Xenagos, a Boon Satyr bestowed Kalonian Tusker, and a Scavenging Ooze. Those, combined with Flesh//Blood dropped him to 8 as I played Purphoros. I made a Satyr with Xenagos (2 dmg from the god), played a Polukranos (another 2 dmg), and swung in.

Game 3 was much the same. He mulled to 6 and opened with Shockland-into-Thoughtseize, taking my Domri Rade but essentially starting him at 16 life. I still managed to play a Scavenging Ooze and a Xenagos to keep the pressure up. I had a few Satyrs in play and dropped Ruric Thar. He Pithing Needled my Xenagos and took 6 damage, dropping to 5. Even with Whip of Erebos out, I had Ruric Thar and Stormbreath Dragon swinging in (and going Monstrous).

Round 3 vs. Vitorio (Red Devotion)
With me being 2-0, we decided to just play for fun and he'd give me the win, dropping. I got 9 packs that way as opposed to the 2 or 3 we'd each get if he won or we split. I'm not really sure how the games went, since I didn't even bother writing down life totals. Red Devotion is beastly. Fanatic of Mogis is rough on anyone with Burning Tree, Frostburn Weird, and Boros Reckoner out. Sometimes you take upwards of 12 damage from a 4-mana 4/2 just coming into play.

So I had a decent deck made, and decided that since it was a local tournament, I'd go down and try and win. 99 person tournament so 7 rounds of Swiss. I'm just going to get straight to the report. Also, where this event was 2 days ago, I'm just going to do a few sentences on each game, I can't remember each game move for move, and I forgot to take notes.

I'm just going to say one thing, I hate Mono Black with a burning passion after this tournament.

Round 1 - Mono-Black Devotion (Cody)

Game 1- I took this game rather easily, Elspeth and Boros Reckoner and removal for all of there creatures.

Sideboarding

+3 Slaughter Games, +2 Pithing Needle
-2 Dreadbore

Game 2- She took this game, my lack of removal, her Desecration Demons, Gray Merchant, and Lifebane Zombies.

Game 3- Same as Game 2, Lifebane Zombies took all of my creatures away.

0-1-0

Round 2 - Golgari Midrange

Game 1 - We actually didn't play this game, I had a mess up on my deck registration (forgot my one of Whip of Erebos) and I had to take a Game 1 loss.

Game 2- I hit everything pretty much when I needed it, I killed his Reaper of the Wilds the turn they played it, and just killed them with Blood Barons.

Game 3- Pretty much the same as Game 2. Took it pretty quick, with 30 minutes left in the round.

Round 3- Mono Black Devotion

Look at Round 1 and you have Round 3.

Round 4- Mono White something

Game 1- I took this with Reckoner a 10/10 Blood Baron and a Whip of Erebos.

Game 2 - a T1 Solider of the Pantheon, T2 Precinct Captain, T3 Ajani, and T4 Heliod gave him the game.

Game 3- Went pretty similar to Game 1, I had 3 Reckoners by T5, and he couldn't do anything

Round 5 - R/G Monsters

Game 1- I actually made this guy scoop. I hit a T6 Elspeth, after a T3 Reckoner, and a T5 Blood Baron of Vizkopa. T6 I played Elspeth, made 3 dudes. He had nothing on board creature wise. Turn 7 I made 3 dudes, played another Elspeth and made 3 more dudes, he said Good Game and scooped.

Game 2 - He won this one because of an explosive start, T1 Elvish Mystic, T2 Domri, T3 Xenagos. Couldn't stablize.

Game 3- This was similar to Game 1 without the second Elspeth.

Round 6- Mono Black Devotion

Look at Round 1 for this round report

Round 7 - B/w (White was Obzedat and Blood Baron)

Game 1- He didn't hit any White and didn't have an answer for 2 Blood Barons

I'd never been to an SCG event before. I'd done mostly FNM, Game Day, and then some other bigger local tournaments. But this was the largest Magic-related thing I'd ever done. And I decided to take it pretty seriously, especially my preparation. I ground out a lot of games on Cockatrice…more for getting a better handle on different deck configurations, but also to try and figure out some other matchups. As usual with Cockatrice, your matches can be…interesting. Sometimes you get people testing far-out brews and wonky cards, or people just don't know how to play. But you can also get people who actually know what they're doing, and those really helped.

I also tested with the other local players who were going to the Open. We jammed games and I tested against UW Control, Mono Blue, Mono Black, Mono Black-splashing-White, GR Monsters, and Esper Control. Oddly enough we didn't test against the White-based Aggro decks or the Red-based Aggro decks…not sure why. Though I did play against a lot of those on Cockatrice. I was particularly worried about my GW Aggro matchup, since it was particularly bad, but I never played against it at the Open or the Open Trial, so…yay?

I did a bit of deck-editing during these tests, removing Flesh//Blood completely and going up to a full set of Mizzium Mortars. A friend of mine was on the same deck archetype, and explained that Mizzium Mortars almost always won you the game. He also advocated some number of Kalonian Hydra. As it was rather strong against Mono-Black, any sort of Green-based deck, and also in the mirror (plus it worked well when Polukranos and Stormbreath went monstrous, and with both Scavenging Ooze and Mistcuttyer). He'd won the SCG Standard Open in Cleveland last Fall, so I decided to take his advice, certainly for testing. In the end, he was pretty much right. Kalonian Hydra was a 2-of in my deck and it was always a solid draw. Mortars was also excellent, and I won several games off of an early-turn Overload.

I'll do a quick-ish run down of how my rounds played out, as well as how I remember sideboarding for them.

Round 1 vs. Eric (BW Midrange) 2-0Game 1: I won the roll and kept my opening 7. He began with a Thoughtseize, but I had plenty of gas to get through it. His only real offensive was an Archangel of Thune, which I promptly hit with a Mizzium Mortars. He managed to land another one and then cast Obzedat, Ghost Council the next turn. Bringing him from 2 to 9 life. But I had a Stormbreath Dragon going Monstrous to kill him.

Game 2: I struggled a bit on this one, and he managed to force me down to 5 life overall. Despite two Thoughtseizes in a row, I was able to deal 13 points of damage when I dropped double Ghor-Clan Rampager on my Polukranos. He began his slow rise back up from there thanks to Archangel of Thune and my not drawing a Mizzium Mortars in time to make it count. I dropped to 5 life and he climbed his way up to 12 with a 6/7 Angel before I found Chandra to keep his Obzedat from blocking and attack through his tapped Angel with Kalonian Hydra and the Dragon for exactly lethal.

Round 2 vs. M1tthew (GR Monsters) 2-0Game 1: was very easily in my favor. I'm not sure exactly how things played out, but I ended the game at 21 life (and was at 23 by some point). He ended up falling to his own Shockland damage that put him in range of a next-turn Stormbreath Dragon.

Game 2: was a bit more back and forth. He began on the offensive with an early-turn Stormbreath Dragon and Mutavaults, but I dropped an early Bow of Nylea to help offset some damage. I was dropped to 7 at one point, but between Scavenging Ooze and the Bow I got myself back to 18 by the end of the game, but not before Overloaded a Mizzium Mortars to clear his 2 Dragons and his Mana Dorks. After that I was back in the game. Making my Scavenging Ooze bigger and dropping other fatties. The Bow and a Chandra locked him out of the game.

Round 3 vs. Arbob (GR Devotion) 1-2Game 1: I won the roll and took over with an early Polukranos and dropped him down to 0 with just four swings. That was all she wrote.

Sideboard In: 2x Shock
Sideboard Out: 2x Boon Satyr

Game 2: I started off well enough, fighting through his Arbor Colossus and getting him all the way down to 8. But he dropped Polukranos and had Nykthos active fore HUGE mana, and I just couldn't retaliate.

Game 3: I encountered a similar roadblock, but this time it was 2 Arbor Colossi. I was also a bit stuck on mana, and without my Kalonian Hydra getting out early enough there was just no way to get through. I'm not totally disappointed though. Arbob ended up placing 3rd or 4th overall.

Round 4 vs. Zack (Mono Blue Devotion) 0-2Game 1: I did my best to get some offensive going. But he had Tidebinder Mage and Rapid Hybridization to shut down everything I could get on board. The beatdown with Thassa finished me off.

Game 2: I was forced taking a mull-to-6 and eventually was stuck on removal. I attempted to go Monstrous with Polukranos to kill his Master of Waves, but he hit me with the Cyclonic Rift and followed his next turn with Tidebinder to tap down my blocker and swing in for exactly lethal + 1.

Round 5 vs. Andrew (Mono Black – Splashing White) 2-0Game 1: This was a complete shut-out. I was on the play and simply smashed face. I was worried about this matchup for a minute, but this game showed I had the durability to survive Thoughtseize into all their removal. I just had more threats than they could deal with. Especially once Scavenging Ooze came into play.

Game 2: He was on the play, but I got just as aggressive. I got hit by Lifebane Zombie, but Chandra, Pyromaster got rid of it quick enough. Then he dropped a Blood Baron, but I had the mortars to follow through. Mutavault did a lot of work, chipping him down slowly slowly. And then I dropped a Kalonian Hydra to seal the deal.

Round 6 vs. Nick (UWR Aggro) 2-1Game 1: It was an interesting deck, and one I hadn't done much practicing against at all, so I was really just figuring him out as I played. Once I saw White, I was confident enough with my Stormbreath Dragons. He played both Boros Reckoner and Fiendslayer Paladin, making an imposing blockade, but my dragons flew overhead and finished it. He had, at a point, been forced to play an Elspeth and immediately wrath my single Dragon, leaving Elspeth open to a Xenagos Satyr/Elvish Mystic assault. And the second dragon sealed the deal.

Game 2: He dominated this game. I tried my best to get a good offensive going. And managed to Overload a Mizzium Mortars on his board (though Boros Reckoner then hit me for 4). In the end a combination of Elspeth and another Reckoner knocked me from the game.

Game 3: I totally dominated. I managed an early turn Kalonian Hydra and there was just nothing he could do. He was stuck a bit on mana. At one point (after declaring my Hydra as an attacker) he tried to Turn (not burn) it. But because of Magic's layers, my hydra was still stocked with +1/+1 counters. Not only that, but his ability had already triggered and doubled it to 8 (I was skeptical of this, but a judge confirmed it) and Turn actually made him an 8/9. Along with a Stormbreath Dragon and an Elvish Mystic (in case of some removal like Celestial Flare) he was knocked from 18 to 5. He managed to wrath my board, but I played a Scavenging Ooze and another Dragon. He scooped.

Round 7 vs. Chris (UW Control) 1-2Game 1: This round was my last loss of the night. He ran me out of game 1 with a bunch of Sphinx's Revelations, near-perfect removal, and an Elspeth. I managed to draw 3 Mizzium Mortars in a row.

Game 2: I stomped. I managed to drop a Turn 3 Ruric Thar and he had absolutely no way to answer it. I followed it up with a few more bombs, and he had to scoop.

Game 3: He had answers to all my threats. He put D'Sphere on my Kalonians, Dissolved my Rurics, Sphere'd my Walkers, Flare'd my Dragons, and landed Elspeth to lock me out of the game. This matchup is usually better for me, but in this game I was just a little too slow/sloppy, and he simply out-played me.

Round 8 vs. Jason (GR Monsters) 2-1Game 1: was very back-and-forth. With each of us killing each other's threats and swinging in. The final turn with me at 3 and him at 2), he managed to Overload his own Mizzium Mortars and swing in with a Dragon (I think).

Game 2: I curbstomped. Kalonian Hydra and Stormbreath Dragon did all the work, and I never took a single point of damage.

Game 3: This was a real crazy game. He managed to hit me down to 4 with a combination of a Stormbreath Dragon, Wtichstalker, and Blood. I managed to Overload a Mortars just in time, but he followed up with a Scavenging Ooze, ticking up to 24 life. In the meanwhile, I was clogging the board with Xenagos's Satyr tokens, a Ghor-Clan Rampager, and a Polukranos. I always blocked. No matter what, I didn't want to be on the receiving end of a Ghor-Clan of his own or another Blood. But at the same time, I was slowly ticking up a Domri Rade. Eventually, I had enough to Ultimate him, and I felt back in control (despite the life difference being 4 to 22). At this point he dropped his own Polukranos and monstrous'd it up to 7. He attacked, but I had my own Polukranos and a Satyr token (both with Double-strike) block his Hydra while my Mutavault blocked his 4/4 Ooze. He almost missed that his Ooze would die via Double-Strike, but pumped it one more time. When he tried to send his Mutavault at me next turn, I Monstrous'd Polukranos and killed it before he could declare it as an attacker. At one point, he attacked his 9/9 ooze into my 8/8 Polukranos (with Double Strike). I chose to block and offered the trade. But he didn't seem to agree and called a Judge over. He disputed the fact that both creatures would die (I guess he didn't understand Double Strike?). And seemed very sour after the Judge told him otherwise. He was still at 20 life, by this point, but I had Xenagos and a pair of Satyr tokens still on the field. I drew another Domri and eventually ticked him up to 9!!! That final Domri activation drew me a Stormbreath and I attacked for exactly 20.

Round 9 vs. Jonathan (GR Monsters)Game 1: Having just come off 2 wins against the mirror, I felt pretty good. I started off very strong, hitting a turn-3 Polukranos; then on turn 4 I swung him to 15 and dropped Kalonian Hydra. He had no answer for it and scooped.

Game 2: This was a HELL of a game. We both hit Turn 2 Domris, but he managed to ultimate his first, and kill mine. During this exchange, however, I'd managed to drop him to 16 and Overload a Mizzium Mortars to help clear his board. But at this point I was feeling some pressure. A Domri Emblem is damn-near impossible to beat. Still, I was at 18, and attacked with a Polukranos to drop him to 11. He held back his Satyr the next turn, so I knew he was representing a trick. So I dropped a Stormbreath and hit him to 7 while keeping Polukranos as a blocker. Next turn he attacked his Boon Satyr into my Polukranos and Shocked it, saving his Satyr (via Double Strike) and dealing me 5 damage and dropping a Scavenging Ooze with 2 open green mana. With two cards in his hand, and all my mana open, I knew he didn't have an out. I monstrous'd Stormbreath, dealing him 2 damage (and knocking him to 5). He saw his two mana could bring him back to 7, but he had no defense for my flying dragon.

Round 10 vs. Dustin (???) 2-0
We never actually played. I sat down and was chatting with the people around me. Dustin came by and offered the split, but I didn't want to go X-3-1 (since that really reduced your points), and everyone else agreed that it wouldn't get us anything. We were better off playing. Dustin seemed upset, and signed the slip 2-0 for me. I guess he just didn't want to play.

Overall Thoughts and Reaction
I had a blast that night. It was after 11 by the time we left. Nearly 12 hours of competitive MTG. That was the most I'd ever done. In the end, it was only my friend and I still in the runnings for prizes. We both scored 21 points, but he ranked 51st because of his tiebreaker points (and his losses only came towards the later rounds). My two early-round losses hurt my score more than his did, so despite the fact that we had the same points, I didn't place in the top 64 (prize winnings). Still, I managed a 79th place in my first SCG event. I'm not at all disappointed.

Cards that did well: Mizzium Mortars and Kalonian Hydra were great. When I played them, they did exactly what I needed them to. Hydra either forced them to have the removal, or basically won the game on his own. Domri Rade and Xenagos were all-stars, as always. I was also duly impressed by Bow of Nylea.

Cards that under-performed: Boon Satyr. He never really got me all that much. I would have probably liked him in the UW Control game, but didn't see him. I found myself siding him out more than anything else.

In the end, I really enjoyed the event. My friends and I had a blast and felt pretty good about the whole day.